A Happy New Year

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy New Year!

The hardest thing about blogging for me is coming up with titles for my posts!  This week it was easy:  I took the title from this postcard.

One hundred and thirteen years ago, in 1911, my great grandmother sent this New Years card to her mother and father, my great great grandparents.  Here's the text of it:

Dear parents:  Thought I would send you a card telling you the mine buildings partly burned last night.  How is Pearl's foot?  Will and Richard aren't well.  

Bessie

Bessie turned 21 years old on December 28, the day before the card was posted.  She and her husband Will Risley had been married for 2 1/2 years, and their son Richard (my grandfather) was about 18 months old.  Pearl was Bessie's younger sister, 15 years old at the time.

Communication in rural Indiana was so different then than it is now.  It's unlikely that either family had a telephone, so letters and postcards were very important for sharing local news and family concerns.

Bessie was a quilter, and I am lucky enough to have some of her quilts.  I wonder if she sewed to keep her worries over Will and Richard and Pearl in check, or if she even had time with a sick toddler and husband to look after.

We had a lovely Christmas celebration this week, with food and presents and games.  And of course, the obligatory group photo.

Our oldest daughter made us some new picture ornaments for our tree.  The top two are her children, Mr. H and Miss E.  (Mr. H has since decided to cut his hair and looks much older.)  Somehow we didn't have an ornament with Little Guy's photo, so my daughter made one for him too.  Picture ornaments are always my favorites, even if they become tattered.

In spite of all the festivities, I actually finished a quilt!  That's because all I had to do was bind it lol, and I did that completely by machine.

The quilt was a Block of the Month by Barbara Brackman called Antebellum Album, which celebrated signature quilts made in the 1840s and 1850s by school girls, North and South.  It is free, and is still available online (Click HERE).

This was the first block, called Wandering Lover.  I started the quilt in late January 2018.  

It's not meant to be a Christmas quilt.  Red and green were very fashionable colors for quilts in this time period, and I had lots of the reproduction prints in my stash.

My friend Joey Mahieu quilted this one for me recently.  The main blocks have these wonderful feathered circles quilted on them, which were placed perfectly, as you can see in this block.  Ms. Brackman encouraged participants to write and draw in permanent ink on our blocks.  On this one, I wrote May the Circle Be Unbroken.

You can see more of Joey's beautiful quilting in the feathered border.  I love running my hands over it.

The backing is a wide back from Connecting Threads.  The binding is a green print that is also in the top.

I'm keeping this one, and I'll probably bring it out at Christmas just because of the colors.

Are you thinking about the upcoming New Year?  I'm trying to decide what to make for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

This is a problem I need to tackle.  It's my "Big Scraps" basket.  I define Big Scraps as those at least 6 in. wide but smaller than a fat quarter.  As I get big scraps, I bundle them up by color and stuff them into this bushel basket until needed.  I'm sure you tell it's getting out of hand.

This year I'm going to concentrate on using these big scraps to make RSC quilts.  I wonder how many quilts I can get out of this basket?

Now for something completely silly.

I bought a little waffle maker!  It was an impulse buy, for sure.  I was walking by it in the store.  It was adorable, and made cute little 4 in. waffles.  Not even expensive.  And they had purple ones!  It practically hopped in the cart.

Following the directions carefully, I made little waffles this morning, and they came out great!  The young grandsons will be here several days next week.  We'll see if they like waffles.

This year is coming to a close in just a few days.  As always, 2024 was a mix of good and bad times, joy and heartache.  Next year will probably be the same.  The joys make it worthwhile and help us weather the bad times.

I'm wishing joy for you in the coming week, and all next year.  Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

  

Basket of Chips, Finished At Last

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I've got some help working on the To-Do quilt pile!  Snicky, shown here in mid-stretch, is providing moral support.  He also took off with my thread at one point, but nobody's perfect.

All this Basket quilt needed was a binding.  Easy, right?  Why do I procrastinate on binding?  With Snicky's "help" I got it done by hand this week.

My procrastination with this quilt didn't start with the binding though.  Back in 2013 when I started this blog, I made a visual list of six quilts I wanted to finish, and this top was there!  It's actually embarrassing.  

Isn't the quilting beautiful?  I had it quilted by my friend Joey Mahieu at Against the Grain in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.  I asked for fancy, and she delivered!

Check out the feathered vine in the border!  I am over the moon!

I bought the wide back from Connecting Threads online.  The binding is just odd strips of dark blue reproduction fabric.

It's been a long journey from start to finish on this quilt.  I started with a traditional pattern called Basket of Chips, and reproduction scraps cut with my Accuquilt cutter.  I found the setting fabric, a Mary Koval print, at a quilt show.  Then I dithered about the borders when I didn't have enough of either of the two fabrics I wanted, and finally used both (one on the sides, the other on the top and bottom).  It sat patiently in the sewing room closet for literal YEARS before I finally ordered the backing from Connecting Threads.  And it's now been almost two more years since Joey finished the quilting.

It's done, hurray!  I am so happy that the quilt is done at last, and we can enjoy it.  I'm not going to keep beating myself up for taking this long to finish.  Life is busy, and quilts are patient.

Also in the closet To-Do pile was the fabric for these pillow cases.  It didn't take long to sew them up and move another project along.

Snicklefritz the cat managed to get into most of my photos this week!  He keeps hanging around, hoping I'll take a nap.

Don't let this happy face fool you, our Buddy was quite sick this week.  Nothing serious, just a virus, but miserable nonetheless.  I took this photo on the second day, when he was almost back to normal.  After two days he was himself again, and happy to go back to school.

I hope everyone is feeling well, and taking care of yourself.  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Working on the UnFinished Objects

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Quick note!  The GSAFE Auction of Quilts and Fiber Arts is live online now through Dec. 3.  Proceeds from the auction go to support programs for Gay and Trans students and their families and educators.  Click HERE to view.  (Three of my quilts are in the auction!)

No outside photos today, it's 12 degrees F and a few snow flurries are drifting down, and I'm too lazy to put on all my cold weather gear.  So here's a little "tropical beach" quilt to help warm us up.

It's a UFO, but not my UFO.  I honestly like finishing other people's UFOs, especially if I think they can be useful and fun for kids.

These sharks are having a great day at the beach.  They've got cans of cola, suntan oil, sunglasses, and a boom box for beach tunes to swim by, all on a pink background.  Truly a one-of-a-kind fabric.

I received this quilt as a top, which was donated to our quilt group.  The Amazing Colleen brought it over, and said she thought of me when she saw it.  Wonder why? LOL.  I quilted and bound it last weekend.  

I had this fabric in my stash, an Alexander Henry print copyright 1998.  Proof that good fabric, properly stored, doesn't necessarily have an expiration date.  It's called "Can You Say Snorkel?".

I love all these child-like drawings of sea creatures, and especially the kids.  As you can see, I quilted it with wavy lines to mimic the waves of the ocean, using a stencil.  The quilt will be donated locally.

If it's just cut pieces, is it a UFO?  Or does it count as scraps or something?  These blocks were started from a bag of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles also donated to us.  I cut background pieces and additional rectangles from my stash to make 20 blocks.

Yesterday, after the mad rush of baking and cooking for Thanksgiving and the lovely holiday was over, I sewed up the blocks. Many of the 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. darker rectangles are Hot Wheels prints which I'm guessing some kid will love.  I'm looking forward to putting these together. 

As it turns out, cleaning out my sewing room closet has consequences.  I "rediscovered" a whole pile of UFOs I had conveniently forgotten about or just set aside for "later".  Well, it's definitely later, so I'm working on them.

This twin-sized top just needed borders.  Quick fix, right?  Except I had forgotten I only had enough of the brown plaid fabric for 3 of the 4 sides.  I guess I was waiting to find another fabric?  I went through my stash and didn't find anything I loved, so in the end I decided to do this:

The brown plaid on the right of the photo is my original choice, and is on three sides of the quilt.  The other brown plaid is just on one end.  The fabrics in the quilt are mostly 1800s reproductions, and this is a very 1800s solution, so I'm happy with it.  I am donating this top, and it will be quilted by the charity committee volunteers.

It was fun to sew these blocks from my repro pieces!  I have lots more BTW.

It feels good to get some of these older projects off my list!  

What a grumpy face!  My grandson Buddy created this out of bananas and blueberries early this week, and asked me to take its picture.  Before he could decide on a name for it, it was all gone.  

There were 13 of us at Thanksgiving this year, and I am so thankful we were all able to be together.

We had a new member of the family at the feast!  This is Finn, and he's about 5 weeks old.  My daughter adopted him only two days before Thanksgiving and he was too little to leave at home.  I took this picture after he ran all around the house, ate some turkey, had some special kitten milk, and just fell asleep in the middle of the floor.  Snicky was not amused.  The rest of us think he's adorable.

I hope all who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm wishing everyone a great week ahead.  Thanks so much for reading this!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

In Which I Test Gravity, and Gravity Wins

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I started out this week on the right foot.  I had 3 quilts my friend Joey had quilted for me back in March 2023 (more than a year ago!) that were waiting to be bound.  It was long past time to get that done, so I started on this one, an 1800s reproduction medallion.  

On Sunday night, I sewed the binding on the back, and started doing my usual machine binding on the front, but it just didn't look right with this reproduction quilt.  So I ripped out the little I had done, and planned to finish the binding by hand.

On Monday, for Veterans Day, I made two of these blocks for our guild's Block of the Month.  These will be donated to a local group that makes quilts for veterans and their families.

That was the last time I did any machine sewing.

Tuesday morning, while bringing a load of laundry down the stairs, I tripped over the cat (he was lying on the bottom stair) and managed to break my toe.  (No worries, Snicky the cat was fine, just freaked out.)

In the grand scheme of things, although painful, this was a minor accident.  I broke the smallest toe on my right foot.  On the intake form they wrote "pinky toe" so I guess that's the technical term.  X-rays confirmed a tiny break.

If you're familiar with sports injuries, you might already know about the recommended treatment.  It's called a buddy wrap.  The injured toe is wrapped with a special tape to the uninjured toe next to it, to help the break heal in the right position.  I'm so glad my poor toe has a buddy to help it!  I hope all the other toes aren't angry with me for making this happen to their friend.

Wearing shoes is still painful, so they gave me this boot.  Eventually I'll be able to get back into my regular sneakers.

So things are under control, and I'm able to do almost everything I normally do.  

Except driving.  AND MACHINE SEWING.  (Nooooooo!)

  Good news, though, I got the medallion quilt bound.  And it was very pleasant to do.

I made this quilt as part of an online "class" by Barbara Brackman on fabric prints from the 1800s.  The stars in this quilt were made with prints first published before 1850 (mine of course were repros).  The bird print in the center (see also the first photo on this post) is a copy of a print by John Hewson, an English fabric printer who came to Philadelphia in the late 1700s.

This is the back, a repro pillar print, first popular in the early 1800s.  I chose the blue binding to go with both front and back.  (Joey's quilting is amazing!)

Now I can stop feeling guilty about a least one unfinished object!  

But it's still too painful to work a foot pedal.  So what about cutting up scraps?

Our quilt guild has been gifted a LOT of fabric lately, including scraps and cut pieces.  Wednesday night after the meeting I took home a bag of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles, and found all these fun Hot Wheels prints in it.  I cut up some light fabrics and some other car prints to make a kit of 20 Windmill blocks.  I found a good backing in my stash, although I will need to piece it to make it long enough.

Do you see the post it note?  I have been doing this lately whenever I cut out a quilt.  On the note I put the details about it, including the measurements, border ideas, etc.  Then I put it all in a clear plastic bag.  When I have time to work on it, I don't have to wonder what I was thinking, or do the math again!  Revolutionary.  (Why on earth did I never think of doing this before?)

Once the kit quilt reaches the quilt top stage, I put the post it notes in my notebook.  Now I have all the details if I want to make something similar again.

I tried driving yesterday with that boot on, and it went okay, but my foot was sore when I got home.  Maybe I will try machine sewing sometime this weekend.  I hope I'll be successful soon.  If not, there may not be an uncut scrap left in the sewing room.  I might even have to resort to hand applique.

Take care, everyone!  And watch out for cats!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Happy Quilt and Broken Dishes

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's my first Rainbow Scrap Challenge finish for the year, a Happy Blocks baby-sized quilt.  My very happy grandson Buddy is modeling it for you.

We've had 3 straight days of rain, so no outside pictures I'm afraid.  I hope the photos are not too dark.

My RSC Happy Blocks were made to use up light novelty print charm squares, some commercial and some home cut.  This is the first of 3 small quilts with these blocks.  They will all be donated.

This one is backed with the same heart fabric I used on the back of the Jelly Twist quilt last week.

I'm making my blocks slightly different than the standard measurements, because I wanted to use the charm squares as is.  The centers are 5 in. cut, and the frame rectangles are 2 in. wide.  Two of the rectangles are cut 2 in. x 5 in. and two are cut 2 in. x 8 in.  The blocks finish at 7.5 in.

When my babies and grandbabies were tiny, I used to lay them down on the floor on a quilt.  This one would be good for that, it's soft and thicker and kind of bouncy due to the poly batting.  Plus there's lots of bright colors to look at.

I'm still having a bit of trouble quilting with the thicker poly batting, but I'm figuring it out.  It might go better if I did free motion quilting, but then I would have to learn how to do that!

In other news, there are a "few" UFOs in my closet, and I want to get at least some of them finished before the end of the year.  This little Broken Dishes wall hanging was made sometime last year, from repro squares from the 2.5 in. drawer plus some half square triangles left from another project.  I finally quilted and bound it this week.  Not a big deal, but one more thing moved off the to-do list.

Here's the back, a scrap of toile printed with scenes from the Civil War. 

It's weird, every time I finish something, I can't wait to finish something else!

And now for more grand kid pictures!  These two adorable kids (whom I call Mr. H and Miss E) were here for a family party for Mr. H's 15th birthday.  H is famous in the family for not wanting his photo taken, but he kindly presented us with his profile.  Miss E is holding the dog's leash, and is just as happy and sweet as she looks.
 

Little Guy and I went to the library last week, and he couldn't wait to get home to "read" his book.

The other day, he told me he wanted to write a letter for his Mama.  I told him that was a great idea, and got markers and paper out.  This is what he wrote:

Grandpa and I had quite a chuckle about it.

He's learning his letters in preschool.  This one is his favorite, not sure why.

It's still raining, so it's a good day for quilting.  Every day is a good day for quilting, isn't it?  You betcha!  Have a lovely week.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap